Sunday National, 8th May 2022. One reason I like elections is they are clarifying moments. Or ought to be. In life, it is all too easy to fall into an echo chamber. If you work with people with similar views, live near folk who mostly seem to share your values, if you consume only media … Continue reading Clarifying moments →

Sunday National, 1st May 2022. “La Reine, le veult.” The Queen wills it. When Westminster is prorogued, the monarch sends a deputation of peers to grant her royal assent to all the legislation which has navigated its way through the Lords and Commons during the parliamentary session. When the clerk utters the traditional Norman French … Continue reading La Reine, le veult →

Sunday National, 24th April 2022. It’s difficult to think of a more toxic slogan to trip out of the mouth of a Scottish Labour Party leader. Fifteen years after his party last held office in Holyrood, eight years since the first independence referendum, seven since the party’s decades-long domination of Westminster seats crashed to a … Continue reading Rotten boroughs →

Sunday National, 17th April 2022. It has been a vintage political week for Douglas Ross. As the Scottish Tory leader was trying to launch his local government election campaign, officers from Scotland Yard began knocking on the doors of Downing Street with some special correspondence for the Prime Minister, his Chancellor, and 48 other people … Continue reading Douglas Ross, Switherer →

Sunday National, 10th April 2022. It’s important to remember the context. By the end of March, Rishi Sunak was already narked. The press had picked up the fact his wife received almost £11.6 million in dividends from Infosys – a business which continued to trade in Russia despite the war in Ukraine. Tetchy TV interviews … Continue reading Dish Rishi →

Sunday National, 3rd April 2022. My sister has a phrase for it: “too posh to function.” The line always runs through my head, whenever the chancellor of the exchequer embarks on one of his public relations campaigns, trying to sell his economic policies as populist interventions, and himself as a popular successor to Boris Johnson. … Continue reading Rishi Sunak: In search of the common man →

Sunday National, 27th March 2022. These days, I am prepared to believe almost anything of the Home Office. The UK government department is a byword for an organisation which mistook Terry Gilliam’s Brazil for “a how-to guide to designing your own authoritarian bureaucracy to crush the lives of people unlucky enough to find themselves subject … Continue reading Close the Home Office →

Sunday National, 20th March. I almost choked on my morning coffee. “It’s time for a fresh start for Glasgow” the slogan read, arguing “it’s time to sweep out the SNP and clean up Glasgow.” The identity of these fresh-faced newcomers? Yes, you’ve guessed it: the Scottish Labour Party. Because nothing says “fresh start” like giving … Continue reading Are you local? →

Sunday National, 13th March 2022. In September 2019, Adnan Ahmed was convicted of five charges of “threatening or abusive behaviour” at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Ahmed is better known in the Scottish media as “Addy A’ Game,” a so-called lifestyle coach and “pickup-artist” whose YouTube videos gave tips to sexually-frustrated men about how to approach, talk … Continue reading Misogyny: a human rights issue? →

Sunday National, 6th March 2022. And so to Glasgow. This weekend, Scottish Labour is meeting in conference. A full year has passed since Anas Sarwar took over as party leader, and racked up the party’s worst ever performance in a Holyrood election. But all’s change. The font is new. The banner reads “Future.” Neil Kinnock’s … Continue reading The best wee numpty in the world →